(Florence) Rose Davies (née Rees)

Place of birth: Aberdare

Service: Teacher, activist, committee women, councillor

Notes: A teacher who had to give up her post on marriage, Rose became of Secretary of the Women’s Co-operative Guild, Aberdare, and was co-opted on to the education committee of Aberdare UDC, of which she later became Chair. She also sat on the local military tribunal, and in 1918 became the first women to chair the Aberdare Trades and Labour Council. She failed to be elected as a District Councillor in 1919 but succeeded in 1920. She remained a Labour activist until her death.

Reference: WaW0238

Mrs Rose Davies

Cllr Mrs Rose Davies at the opening of the mining engineering laboratory attached to the Aberdare Boys’ County School, 1922

Newspaper report

Report of Aberdare Trades and Labour Council supporting the National Council for Civil Liberties, Aberdare Leader 15th Feb 1919.

Minnie Pallister

Place of birth: Kilkhampton, Cornwall

Service: Teacher, activist, writer

Death: 1960, Cause not known

Notes: Minnie Pallister was born in Cornwall in 1885, and was educated at Cardiff university, after which she became a teacher in Bryn Mawr. She was elected president of the Monmouthshire Federation of the Independent Labour Party just before the outbreak of War in 1914. She was renowned as a speaker on peace and the Labour movement, and was the national organiser in Wales of the No Conscription Fellowship. She was also an accomplished pianist, accompanying the Brynmawr Ladies Choral Society and others in fund-raising concerts for the Red Cross.

Reference: WaW0230

Minnie Pallister

Minnie Pallister, teacher, activist, writer

Newspaper report

Report of Minnie Pallister’s appointment as Monmouthshire ILP President, Llais Llafur 1st August 1914

Notice of meeting

Notice of meeting in Merthyr, 18th September 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of a lecture by Minnie Pallister, the Pioneer 27th May 1916

Alice A White

Place of birth: Pontardulais

Service: Teacher, Commandant, VAD, 1916/09/01 – 1919/05/10

Notes: Alice White was the head teacher of Wood Green Infants School Cardiff. She was also the Commandant of Samuel House Auxiliary Hospital in Cardiff, and received the Royal Red Cross for her service in April 1919.rnRoedd Alice White yn brifathrawes Ysgol y Babanod Wood Green, Caerdydd. Roedd hi’n Benswyddog Ysbyty Atodol Samuel House Caerdydd hefyd a derbyniodd y Groes Goch Frenhinol am ei gwasanaeth ym mis Awst 1919. rn

Reference: WaW0469

Newspaper report

Report of Alice White’s award of the Royal Red Cross. Cambria Daily Leader 7th April 1919.

London Gazette

Alice White’s award listed in the London Gazette, April 1919.

Wood Street Infants

Photograph of children at Wood Street Infants School, 1925. Wood Street, also known as Temperance Town, was a densely packed area adjacent to Cardiff Station.

Nora Tempest (Soutter)

Place of birth: Dundalk, Ireland

Service: Teacher, cook, VAD, 1915 - 1916

Notes: Nora Tempest, born 1886, was a popular domestic science mistress at Carmarthen County Girls School. She joined the Scottish Women’s Hospitals to serve as a cook at Kragujevac Hospital. She was caught up in the great retreat after the Austrians invaded Serbia, walking for seven weeks through the mountains of Montenegro and Albania in winter. She arrived home on Christmas Eve, 1915. She is said to have taken many photographs of the retreat. After her return she married and settled back in Ireland.

Reference: WaW0275

Newspaper report

Short account of Nora’s experiences on the retreat from Serbia. Carmarthen Weekly Reporter 21st January 1916

Newspaper report

Report of Nora’s visit back to Carmarthen County Girls School. Carmarthen Journal 9th June 1916

Elsie Chamberlain (née Cooil)

Place of birth: Liverpool

Service: Teacher, mother, local politician

Notes: Elsie with her family moved from Liverpool to Bangor when she was five. After finishing school, she became a teacher in local schools. Charlotte Price White [qv], the well-known local suffragist, told her ‘You have the ability to do public work and it is your duty to serve the citizens of Bangor’. She became involved in many war-time committees, and stood, unsuccessfully, in the municipal elections of 1919, finally becoming a councillor in 1930 and the first woman mayor of Bangor between 1941 and 1943. Elsie was the mother of the artist and writer Brenda Chamberlain, and died in 1972.

Sources: Jill Percy: Brenda Chamberlain, Artist and Writer (Parthian Books 2013)

Reference: WaW0409

Elsie Chamberlain

Elsie Chamberlain as first woman Mayor of Bangor, 1941 - 3

Newspaper article

Report of a housing exhibition organised by the Bangor branch of the National Council of Women, including Mrs Chamberlain. North Wales Chronicle 15th August 1919

Newspaper report

Report of the municipal elections in Bangor. North Wales Chronicle 24th October 1919

Marie Beckers

Place of birth: Belgium

Service: Teacher, refugee

Notes: Marie Becker was one of the Belgian refugees hosted in Holywell, and seems to have been a spokeswomen for the group. Her appointment to teach the Belgian children at Holywell County School was reported in the English and Welsh press.

Reference: WaW0399

Newspaper report

Report of Marie Becker’s appointment at Holywell County School. Flintshire Observer 21st January 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Marie Beckers's appointment at Holywell County School. Y Brython 21st January 1915.

Fannie Thomas

Place of birth: Dolgellau

Service: Teacher, Suffragette, Councillor

Notes: Born in 1868, one of six children of an accountant at the National Provincial Bank, Fannie Thomas was a teacher, suffragette, and from1895 Headmistress first of the Infants school and after 1908 Ffaldau Girls School Pontycymer, where she remained for 35 years. Her interest in women’s suffrage arose through her membership of the National Union of Teachers where women teachers were fighting for equality with male teachers. In 1906 she was one of those who formed the National Union of Women Teachers, of which she was President in 1912. She invited Adela Pankhurst to speak on suffrage at Pontycymer (to raise funds for the NSPCC) in April 1907, and herself spoke on numerous occasion, being described by the Glamorgan Gazette as ‘a doughty warrior in the women’s cause’. She was part of the Welsh contingent of the Women’s Coronation Procession of 1911. Her position at the school made her fully aware of the poverty in the area and in November 1914 she stood unsuccessfully for the Board of Guardians (being beaten by another women, Mrs Edmund Evans, by 32 votes.) Fannie did however stand successfully as a Labour candidate for Ogmore and Garw Urban District Council in 1919 and later became leader of the council. Fannie Thomas is said to be the first woman in the Garw Valley to wear breeches (her nickname locally was Fanny Bloomers) and the first to ride a motor-bike. rnWith many thanks to Ryland Wallacern

Sources: Ryland Wallace :‘A doughty warrior in the women’s cause’. Llafur 2018 volume 12 number 3

Reference: WaW0460

Newspaper report

Report of Adela Pankhurst’s talk in aid of the NSPCC organised by Fannie Thomas. Glamorgan Gazette 19th April 1907

Newspaper report

Report of a debate on women’s suffrage at the Ffaldau Institute; Fannie Thomas proposed the motion ‘should women have the vote’. Glamorgan Gazette 22nd January 1909

Newspaper report

Report of the contest for a seat on the Board of Guardians. Fannie Thomas lost. Glamorgan Gazette 13th November 1914

Newspaper report

Comment on Miss F M Thomas’s election to Ogmore and Garw Urban District Council. Glamorgan Gazette 11th April 1919.

Miss F M Thomas

Miss F M Thomas President of the NFWT 1912

Women’s Coronation Procession

Fannie Thomas second from right, with a basket. Rachel Barrett also appears extreme left. Women’s Coronation Procession June 1911

Ffaldau Girls School 1925

Girls and teachers of Ffaldau Girls School 1925. Fannie Thomas is second right.

Charlotte Price White (née Bell)

Place of birth: Scotland

Service: Teacher, suffragist, councillor

Death: 1932, Bangor, Cause not known

Notes: A former teacher who had studied science at university College, Bangor, Charlotte was a founder member of the Bangor Women’s Suffrage Society, and was one of only two women from North Wales (the other being Mildred Spencer from Colwyn Bay) to walk the whole NUWSS Great Pilgrimage to London in 1913. During the war she was extremely active in all kinds of support, raising money for the Welsh Women’s Hospital Unit in Serbia , the Patriotic Guild War Savings, the National Union of Women Workers, the Women’s Institute and many others. In 1926 she became the first woman member of Caernarvonshire County Council and was very active in the International League for Peace and Freedom.

Reference: WaW0410

Charlotte Price

Photograph of Charlotte Price White, c.1930

Newspaper report

Report of the work of the Bangor Medical Aid Committee, of which Charlotte was Hon Secretary. North Wales Chronicle 18th December 1914

Newspaper report

Report of a meeting of the War Savings Committee. North Wales Chronicle 19th October 1917

Newspaper report

Part of a report on fundraising for a North Wales Women’s Hospital Unit in Serbia. Charlotte was Hon Secretary (again). North Wales Chronicle 23rd April 1915

Newspaper report

Report of difficulties arising between the Women’s Institutes of North Wales and the Board of Agriculture. Charlotte Price White chaired the meeting. North Wales Chronicle 21st December 1917.

Margaret Sara Meggitt (née ?)

Place of birth: Grantham

Service: Teacher, trade unionist

Notes: Margaret Meggitt moved to Newport, Mon, in 1906 with her husband. They had previously lived in Mansfield, where she had been involved in the Suffrage movement. She joined the Labour Party in 1913, and formed the Newport Branch of the National Federation of Women Workers, serving as secretary for four years. She was the first woman to sit on the Newport Trades and Labour Council, and was an assessor on the Munitions tribunal of Monmouthshire, with particular emphasis on the working conditions of girls and women. She was also an executive member of the Monmouthshire Committee of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, and supported the defence appeal for Gladys May Snell [qv].

Sources: Who’s Who in Newport 1920

Reference: WaW0363

Margaret Merritt

Photograph of Margaret Meggitt from Who’s Who in Newport, 1920.

National Union of Women Workers badge

Badge of the National Federation of Women Workers, possibly from Monmouthshire. Thanks to Pete Strong.

Janet Gulliver

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Teacher, Volunteer police woman, Swansea Women’s Patrols, February / Chwefror 1916-1917

Notes: Janet Gulliver, a mathematics teacher educated at Somerville College, Oxford, joined the Womens Patrol in Swansea early in 1916. Possibly she is the same Janet Gulliver who hurt her leg falling off a wall in May 1917

Sources: https://blogs.some.ox.ac.uk/thegreatwar/2016/02/03/february-1916-women-patrols-moral-guardians-and-prototype-police/

Reference: WaW0447

Janet Gulliver

Photograph of Janet Gulliver as a student at Somerville College, Oxford.

Newspaper report

Report of Janet Gulliver injuring her leg. Cambria Daily Leader 28th May 1917.